Stay Grounded: Soil Building for Sustainable Gardens (Easy-Growing Gardening, #8)

Hello, fellow gardeners! Are you ready to get your hands dirty and cultivate the soil of your dreams? Then you need "Stay Grounded: Soil Building for Sustainable Gardens," the comprehensive guidebook that will help you grow a thriving, healthy garden that nourishes both your body and soul.

As a lifelong gardener and sustainability advocate, I've spent years perfecting my approach to soil building. In this book, I share my tried-and-true techniques for assessing soil health, choosing natural amendments, and nurturing a healthy ecosystem that supports a wide variety of plants and animals.

From composting to cover cropping, this book covers all the essential topics that will help you create a rich, fertile soil that produces abundant, delicious crops. You'll also find practical advice on companion planting, seed starting, and other key skills that will help you maximize your garden's potential.

But "Stay Grounded" is more than just a guidebook - it's a call to action. With our planet facing unprecedented environmental challenges, we need sustainable gardening practices now more than ever. By cultivating healthy soil and reducing our reliance on harmful chemicals and practices, we can create a better ecosystem and better world.

So join me on this journey towards sustainable, nourishing gardening. Together, we can make a difference - one garden at a time.

Auteur

This is the gardening pen name for Melinda R. Cordell. Former city horticulturist, rose garden potentate, greenhouse manager, perennials factotum, landscape designer, and small-time naturalist. I've been working in horticulture in one way or another since 1989. These days I write gardening books because my body makes cartoon noises when I move, and I really like air-conditioning. Good times!

Texte du rabat

One of the most important things a gardener can do is to build up the soil in her garden. But keep in mind that soil-building is not a one-time operation - it's a process. As humus is devoured by microorganisms, worms, and plants, more organic material must constantly be added in order to keep the soil biomass, and thereby the plants, well-fed and happy. Also, humus makes the soil porous and fluffy, builds a strong soil structure, and releases nutrients in a form that's easily absorbed by plant roots. Chemical fertilizers will not add humus to the soil. These are merely nutritional supplements; plants and their soil need real food - organic material. This book shows you all sorts of ways to get organic material into the soil to improve soil health and soil fertility, which in turn improves plant health -- for better gardens, higher yields, and more gorgeous flowers. SOIL BUILDING Saving the world, one dirt clod at a time Earthworms = earth movers Green manures Compost My soil is evil! GET TO KNOW YOUR SOIL TAKING SOIL SAMPLES THE SOIL FOOD WEB EARTHWORMS: THE SUPER SOIL SAVERS How to Protect Earthworms A Field Guide to Earthworms Epigeic Earthworms Endogeic Earthworms Anecic Earthworms ORGANIC MATTER AND HUMUS Mother Nature Shows Us How To Make Great Soil Don't Let Leaves Go To Waste! MULCH THE WORLD! Fix Out-Of-Control Weeds With Newspaper Mulch COMPOST - BLACK GOLD Composting: Learn the Basics The Ultimate in Recycling: Extreme Composting! Sixty Weird Things You Can Compost! ORGANIC SOIL AMENDMENTS GREEN MANURES AND COVER CROPS Cover crops and their benefits Green manures and their benefits Places to plant them Plants to use for green manures and cover crops ALFALFA: A GARDENER'S SECRET INGREDIENT THE CASE AGAINST CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS NO-TILL GARDENING FIXING LOUSY SOIL Fixing Subdivision Soil Aerarate, Add Good Things to Improve Your Soil HOW TO MAKE A NEW GARDEN BED And, how to improve a very sad garden soil Raised garden beds to help the soil (and your back)